Towards Better Democracy
Fine Art
Life So Far
Curriculum Vitae

Education

Professional

Vocational and Nonvocational Interests

Towards Better Democracy

Towards Better Democracy was established 7 years ago in the belief that Democracy as a way of life can be continual improved to the betterment of all its peoples who live in such a society. I think that that advancement is achieved by us not looking to our elected representatives for improvement of it, but in taking greater responsibility for ourselves and our lives. By this means we hold those representatives more and more to account. Governments are elected to work on our behalf not to decide for themselves what they think is good for us.

The situation in the Middle East at the time was characterised by the young people there making it clear that they wished to see Democracy established within each of their countries. Of course, as with the way of all powers that be, despotic governments, as has been the case throughout history, this is not achieved without violence.

The tragedy for the Middle East was that the middle classes and those older than the students and young people did not support these activities with the result that the movement was remorselessly crushed. Every self appointed despot or junta ensures that it has at its desposal all the apparatus to ensure the continuance of its power and brooks no interference of that of any kind.

The blog is also a medium through which I can give public voice to my many interest, principally music and poetry.

Fine Art

Beginning in December of 2016 I began to produce digital fine art works. In mid of February of this year I took what I had produced so far to my wife to show her what I had been doing. She studied them carefully.

“Malcolm,” she said, “You need to do something with these.”

Well, dear readers, if you wave a red flag in front of a bull, it knows where to run. The result was that I started putting the work on Saatchi Art and on ArtFinder. I don’t regard Towards Better Democracy as the right medium for displaying art work. Art work is visual and Towards Better Democracy supports a narrative form.

malcolmdbmunrofineart.com is that medium. Saatchi Art and ArtFinder will continue to be the sales outlet for the art work. malcolmdbmunrofineart, as yet to have a name, will be a medium to showcase the work to people I meet and serve to carry my thoughts and views on art which are quite out of place on a site like Saatchi Art.

I detest websites that have gone app friendly which does not suit the desktop and laptop form. The content and appearance is in bite sized form. Eugh. The new website will not take that form. Visual works deserve to be viewed fully not on a bite sized screen.

Life So Far

A wartime baby, I was born in my mother’s upstairs childhood bedroom in my maternal grandparents’ home at 101 Bebbington Road, Rockferry, in the County of Cheshire on the 10th of November, 1945 to Doris Edith (née Bellion) and Rolland John Bruce Munro. He was born in Newcastle and she in Hampshire but I know nothing of their lives prior to my birth.

Apparently the birth was difficult. My father had recently demobbed from the British Army having served in the Army Educational Corp. and met my mother in the town in which he had been demobbed, Liverpool.

We relocated to Aberdour, Fife, Scotland, and subsequently to Edinburgh. I was a little more than a year old when we moved to Scotland and I am told that I was given a wee dram of Scottish Whisky, it being New Year, as the train crossed the border.

I am one of three siblings, one deceased. My father was Professional Librarian for the Royal Society of Edinburgh. A lifelong avocational scholar he specialised and wrote papers on Scottish history and science, some of which are collected at the National Library of Scotland. In 1946-1947, at his suggestion and working with the City Fathers of the Edinburgh City Council to flesh out his ideas, together they founded the Edinburgh International Festival, the first of its kind in the world and the model for all others founded since. The Fathers wisely brought in a professional, albeit American, with a background suitable for a pioneering undertaking of a problematic nature, especially in city with such cautious Fathers. Their wisdom in bringing a safe pair of hands has ensured is fabulous success. It has put Edinburgh on the map as no other venture could.

In 1949 my father founded the Scottish Genealogy Society in 1949, which became a model for all such societies throughout the world. People from all over the world came to visit our house on Rothsay Terrace in Edinburgh.

In 1952 my parents separated and, for a while, my brothers and I were in my mother’s care. In 1954 she passed us over to the care of my father with whom I lived until I left home in 1964.

As a result of the breakdown of his marriage and his deeply felt disappointment at its failure, led my father to retire from the world and enter the world which he had always loved, that of the world of ideas and writing. The house became filled with boxes and boxes of his writings. They were everywhere. He also possessed a vast collection of books.

I didn’t do particularly well at school, always staying in the top ten of the class but carefully avoiding first place. Outside school I didn’t do very much other than read which passion I have followed all my life. I have read daily, for a long time until 4 o’clock in the morning, ever since.

A formative influence in my life as a child was the time I spent with my mother’s brothers and her parents in England. Fondness would be too light a word for how I feel about the time spent with them.

Since my father never worked but pursued his work as a scholar avocationally after the breakup of his marriage, at fourteen I decided to become an engineer, like my maternal uncles, despite my clear artistic nature. In this I follow my mother who dripped artistic abilities. Her genes, I suppose.

Life with my mother was bliss, that with my father grim. I was glad to leave the parental home and lead my own life. At some psychological cost. But let that be the stuff of my fiction or biography should such a bloody thing be ever written.

There are many serious writers in English, there are some funny writers, but few are both serious and funny. I was recently in the company of a very animated 12 year old boy, son of an associate, who was engaging me in conversation. At one point he said, “It is very hard to make you laugh.” I roared with laughter at that.

In February 2015 I completed my career of 47 years in Engineering, not including the 10 years during which I completed my Masters and taught.

As an fine artist I draw upon my visual nature and bring to my art my years art training and background in reading fiction and my studies of history. I have a good eye which is crucial in the graphic fine art which, at least for the time being, I am strong in. At this stage it would appear that I am finding my voice as an artist and am exploring various mediums and means of expression to discover how best I can invest the works with commitment and passion. In my view, really good art has to contain within it deeply felt emotions. Should this not be true, one cannot hope for viewers to draw significance from the works and to be deeply affected by them. Furthermore, still in my view, the artist’s work must have an integrity and authenticity to be considered worthwhile at all.

Curriculum Vitae

Brief Timeline

September 1950 – September 1964, Edinburgh, Scotland
Attended Primary School, Middle School and High School

June 1970, Wharton, Lancashire, England
Completed Graduate Apprenticeship, completed University Engineering degree
Began working as an Engineer

Education

September, 1966 – June, 1970, University of Central Lancashire, University of Loughborough
BSc in Mechanical Engineering

June 1972 – 1984, UNISA, University of Witwatersrand, University of Cape Town, South Africa The McNay, San Antonio, USA
Completed BA courses in English Literature, American Literature, Journalism, Theory of
Music, History of Music, 20th Century Music, Art History, Painting, Life Drawing,
Psychobiology. Studies Piano and Voice

Vocational and Avocational Interests

Writer of poetry, fiction, play scrips, and social and political essays

Reader of translated fiction, principally Eastern European and countries of the former Soviet Union, social and military history, principally WW1 and WW2, language theory and origins, writing systems, archeology and ancient civilizations.

Formed Penny Productions, Houston, 1985, to produce Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s “The Physicists” directed Dr Sam Marinov at Duchesne Theatre, with funding from Swiss Consul in Houston, and the Houston Chapter of the Swiss American Swiss Chamber of Commerce.

Formed 501(c)(3) for other theatre producers and worked with them to secure funding from Houston based Foundations

Co-lead in Edward Albee’s “Finding the Sun” directed by the playwright, University of Houston.

Wrote “House of Atreus” with the section Greek Women’s Chorus from the play choreographed by Farrel Dyde for the Farrel Dyde Dance Company

Assisted Lindsay Reardon with his production, at his TheatreLab, Hillcroft, Johannesburgh, of “Blood Wedding” by Frederico Garcia Lorca

Acted in “Rose Tattoo” by Tennessee Williams at University of Witwatersrand Theatre, Cape Town

Played Richard the Lionheart in “The Lion in Winter” by James Goldman at the Library Theatre in Johannesburg

Ship’s Doctor in “Female Transport” by Steeve Gooch, directed by Mavis Taylor at the Space Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa

Produced “Pygmalion” by Bernard Shaw, directed by Carol Bower, at what was then a High School for Coloured, Cape Flats, South Africa

Acted in community theatre produced plays in Parrow and Deauville, South Africa; “Hello Out There” by William Saroyan, “Dead on Nine” by Jack Popplewell

Played the Corporal in “The Long, the Short and the Tall” by Willis Hall at University of Central Lancashire

Lead in “A Gentleman Caller” directed by William Patterson at the Pleasance Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland